Charity bags: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

It is an urban myth that Bob Geldof used the title phrase in the 1985 Live Aid campaign to raise money for starving children. He did use the 'f' word in an interview but not as generally quoted. View here.

Concerts were held around the world following a BBC news report on the famine which had afflicted the people of Ethiopia. But potential contributors had a choice. Those who were not in the audience could make a payment or enjoy free entertainment while children starved. Persuasion and conscience were key ingredients.

Charity is big business. Arm twisting is a professional activity. Charities pay arm-twisters a percentage of the money they raise. But what of the target? Legendary poppy seller Olive Cook is presumed to have taken her own life after being sent 260 letters from charities every month asking for money and stress caused by cold callers.

Jenny Phelps, a former carer, 'slammed charities' saying they were 'preying on goodwill' after receiving 1,000 begging letters over five years.

Charities need to get their act together. Stewardship teams like to remind churchgoers that "God loves a cheerful giver", a message not lost on charities but cheerful giving often results in harassment. Once on their books charities will target donors regardless of whether they have already given to their latest appeal and their regular givers with pleas for more cash, often with harrowing pictures to drive their message home.

A practice I find particularly objectionable involves charity consultants ringing donors to encourage them to increase their giving, often from meagre resources, so that they can claim commission.

Another irritation is the intimidating supermarket collection where in-your-face charity collectors glare at customers with a 'don't you pass-by-on-the-other-side look'. Thankfully the pressure has eased since most supermarkets have banned the collection of direct debit details to avoid customers feeling pressurised.

The worst abusers are the scam bag collectors who trade on people's ignorance, sympathy and generosity. It's so easy. Pick a charity, print their details on a bag with the Charity number to make it look authentic then promise to pay the charity between £50, £85 or £100 while making a fortune for themselves - see the charity bag scam here.

According to the British Heart Foundation the trade had led to an estimated loss of donations direct to BHF shops worth £4.6million over two years. In some cases they said "charities are getting £50 to £100 per tonne of goods collected when, in fact, the goods can sell abroad for anything up to £1,800."

Charities need the money but if there is any doubt that a charity bag is genuine, far better to go direct to the charity shop, some will happily collect, or make a donation directly to such as the Alzheimer's Society displayed in the header.

And be aware of the FRSBü logo. I have an animal welfare bag in front of me which prominently displays the tick of approval but reading the small print shows that they will donate a minimum of £50 per tonne of goods collected, presumably leaving the collector in excess of £1500 while claiming that every penny of every pound donated goes to directly to animal welfare. That's just £50 in pennies then!

The grumblings on The Green this week centre on yet more dissent towards Bazza's glove puppet.

It seems a small fortune has been spent on "refurbishing" the Prebendal House (not the kitchen, over and above the £27k spent on that!) for the 3 month experiment of "The Cathedral Café" run by the catering staff of St. Michael's College.New curtains, new pictures, you know readers, the sort of unnecessary and expensive tat and trivia so beloved of the spendthrift Dark Lord and his minions.The place is now SO nicely done out the Golf caddie and his favourite Mr Toad have reportedly felt it required an executive decision to limit access to the new facilities, the use of which is to be strictly limited to those deemed trustworthy and it seems that doesn't include the likes of the Sunday school kids.So much for suffer little children.

I can find no mention of the new Cathedral Café on the Cathedral website much less any details of opening times, menu, prices, how to book and so on.If I do a Google search on it nothing appears either.The glove puppet can spend money it seems but appears not to have the first idea about marketing or publicity!

Is Acting Principal Clavier speaking with forked tongue in the latest annual report for 2014/15 from St Michael's?"Despite misleading reports about our imminent closure, we have continued to improve and develop new initiatives across the whole range of our activities."What "misleading" reports?To precisely which reports does he refer?The only reports to be found anywhere concern the "release of the Ministry Review report that, among others [sic] things, recommended the closure of St Michael’s College and the ending of residential training."Does he believe the authors of the Ministry Review report attempted to mislead His ++Darkness and his fellow bunglers?

If things are all going so well at St. Michael's, how can Clavier afford to lend catering staff to the Cathedral full time for 5 days a week?Or is it merely a happy coincidence that the end of the academic year and departure of his few residential students until September (presumably leaving his cooks with nothing much to do) just happens to fit in nicely with the Capon's 3 month Café experiment?

Or is it another example of Darth ++Insidious circumventing employment law again?Did anyone see the catering jobs for "The Cathedral Café" advertised?Or job descriptions publicised?Shortlists?Interviews?I suppose it's a miracle Bazza's golf caddie didn't tell Mr Toad to put on his apron and bugger up another Café?£27k+ spent and there's still no sign of the Parish breakfasts reappearing!

My apologies readers of AB.I have discovered that whilst the glove puppet and the Cathedral are describing his latest experiment as "The Cathedral Café", it seems Clavier and his staff are advertising the same experiment on the St Michelle's website under the heading "St Michael’s@Prebendal ‘pop-up’ tea room".Seemingly Capon and Clavier can't even agree upon a name!And can anyone enlighten me on the meaning of a "'pop-up' tea room" please?

@EpiskoposHave you not seen all the new high security (and expensive) locks and security plates that have been added to the various doors of the Prebendal House/"The Cathedral Café"?You do realise that they have been installed specifically to keep out Robert Render and his supporters precisely to prevent the Parish breakfasts being cooked?Such is the response from Bazza's glove puppet if one dares to cross him.And then he has the cheek to print that obscene begging letter in The Bell asking for more money.I am led to believe that many of the Llandaff regulars have decided to reduce their giving in line with the reduced level of "service" provided by the C in W, Darth ++Insidious and his gold caddie.

The Capon has also peed off the Llandaff Cathedral Choral Society because he is also insisting on putting up the charges for using the Cathedral for concerts.If he's not very careful no-one will hire the building for such events and income will dwindle further following the nose-diving communicant numbers.People must have known he was down to preach at the 11am this morning, there were over 20 empty car parking spaces on The Green at 11:15.

And the crowning glory was Llandaff on Songs of Praise again this afternoon for another round of "Spot the Llandaff Regular" accompanied by the non-existent Cathedral Choir.

Bielby saw fit to promote himself to Director of Music.Of course using the word 'interim' might have raised a few awkward questions from the BBC and led them to the truth about the Llandaff choir. And 'most' Cathedral choirs sing 5 or 6 services a week but no mention from Bielby that his choir only sing half of that.Nauseating stuff. Propaganda of which Bazza & Morrell are no doubt very pleased.

That's right 1662.Having verified the facts with my sources, it seems a return flight and hotel room were paid for by the LCCA for Mr Butler to go on tour to Verona, Italy in 2009.He failed to show up on the day without explanation or apology leaving the Cathedral Choir with only one Bass Lay Clerk and one Bass Choral Scholar for their final concert.As far as I can ascertain the wasted money was not refunded by Mr Butler to the LCCA.

Butler claimed on air to have sung "on and off"with the Cathedral choir for the last 10 years.He sang for Moorhouse as a dep (not one of the regulars) from 2005-2009 when he was sacked. Assuming he picked up where he left off following Bielby's interim appointment, his commitment to the choir is hardly anything to crow about on Radio 4.Couldn't the glove puppet and Bielby find a better advert for their music?

Having been recorded and broadcast then revealed as being deceitful on a Radio 4 prime time slot must surely fall under the heading of bringing the Cathedral "choir" and the Cathedral itself into disrepute?

@Lux Et VeritasGood point.Reputable employers tend to take a dim view of such matters, but does anyone nowadays consider Llandaff Cathedral to be a reputable employer. I think that particular myth was exploded some time ago.However, Mr Butler might have more cause to be worried should his regular employer learn of his recent antics on air.

In this weeks edition of the weekly notes.http://www.llandaffcathedral.org.uk/documents/Week150621.pdf

"CATHEDRAL CHOIROn Monday 8th June Jonathan Bielby and members of the Cathedral Choir were featuredon BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme. If you missed it you can listen to it atwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05xd504The feature starts on 38 minutes with Jonathan explaining the role of Cathedral choirs inthe context of the Anglican Choral Tradition."

What a shame the Laurel & Hardy duo (Bielby and Butler) didn't have the balls to tell the truth about the situation surrounding the "Anglican Choral Tradition" in Llandaff.Who do these fools think they're kidding?Bielby will be lucky if Butler bothers to show up for the forthcoming trip to Yorkshire!

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An ancient Briton's thoughts on topical news/events, occasionally with a hint of irony, with special reference to politics, society and religion, particularly if oddities or injustices are apparent.

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